Commonly, in pulling dents from thin metal panels, particularly in automotive bodies, fenders and the like, a nail-like stud is welded to the dented area of the panel, and then the shank of the stud is gripped and pulled by some appropriate means, such as a slide hammer, to pull the dent out. In gripping the stud, conventional stud pulling tools are placed over the stud and a screw is tightened to clamp or otherwise grip the stud. Such a tool is shown in West German Patent No. 2,616,746, wherein a Knurled gripper is wedged against the stud under force of a threaded sleeve. Mattson U.S. Pat. No. 4,827,759, shows a stud pulling tool in a lever system for pulling dents, wherein the shank of the stud is quickly gripped by rotating an eccentrically mounted, knurled wheel against the shank of the studs so that pulling the stud pulls the wheel in a tightening direction to increase the gripping force. Such a stud puller has worked satisfactorily in practice, but some difficultly has been encountered in inserting the stud because the operator cannot be certain that the tool is conditioned to receive a stud.